There are people on the PKDef group on Facebook talking about testing with UC Davies so I assume they're probably USA based people.

I'd never really heard of it in the UK until a few months ago and it wasn't mentioned on breeder websites but now the testing programme really seems to have taken off and breeders are including their results on their breeding cat pages.

I read all this about PKdef the other day & contacted Langford for the swabs. Swabs have arrived today & I am now taking my little man Valentino to the vets to have the tests done. I am also having him tested for PKD as they can use the same sample. It only costs £45 for the two tests to be done from the same sample.

I have contacted the breeder he came from & they have not tested their cats for PKDef or HCM!

When I bought him the cats were advertised with a pet price but could be put on the active register. I bought him as a pet but have spoken to the breeders about him being put on active. They are quite happy to do this as long as I pay the difference between pet price & active. I am having these tests done first to see if he is ok to breed from. If these test are ok I will then be having him tested for HCM before deciding whether to breed him or have him neutered.

My little queen is PKDef & PKD negative from her parents. Her Sire has been tested HCM clear but the queen hasn't been tested. I will be having her tested for HCM.

Her littermate (who I had originally but was replaced by her breeder immediately) had a grade 2/3 heart murmur. My usual vet picked this up straight away, but I went to another who's a cardiac specialist for a second opinion, as I have read that kittens can often have a murmur which goes away. And also the breeder had said the vet might find a slight heart murmur due to the kitten being scared with being taken to the vets. The second vet said it was a very low frequency murmur more to the left that the right, which could well indicate a hole in the heart. He couldn't be sure without doing an ultrasound. He was surprised that the breeders vet hadn't picked this up!?! He said as I had bought her for breeding the best thing would be to send her back to the breeder.When I emailed the breeder just to tell her (couldn't ring crying my eyes out only had her couple of days but loved her to bits) she offered immediately to replace the kitten with her sister (higher quality/price for the same price) also she would have the new kitten delivered & my baby collected the day after so I didn't have to make the 4/5 hour round trip. This even though I was out of the 72 hour health check (vet's daughter rushed to hospital so had to cancel & rebook for 2 days later)

I've had the new kitten for a week now. The difference between the two kittens was immediately noticeable the new one is twice as big (breeder says she's a big girl) when I'd commented on other one being so much smaller than Tino was at same age she told me that females were smaller than males. Not much difference in size between Tino at that age & the new kitten.The new one Xena has much more energy, it wasn't long before she was shooting round the room investigating & coming for hugs, the other one had still been hiding away after nearly a week. Also she'd been crying a lot, would never come out to me but seemed to be calling me to come & get her, which wasn't that easy as she was under the sofa. She sat quite happily purring on my knee & stayed with me when I picked her up.

Anyway I've gone off on one. Thanks for letting me share. To anyone reading sorry its so long.I'll let you know Tino's results when I get them back.

Just got test results back from Langford, very quick turnaround am impressed.Valentino is PKD normal & PKDef normal Yippeeeeeee Now to check for HCM.

The HCM gene test doesn't work for Bengals, the only way to test for it is to screen your cats via echo-cardiogram performed by a qualified veterinary cardiologist at 1 year of age and then annually after that, how old is Valentino now?

Hi Jenda, Yes, its a pity they haven't found a specific gene yet, but hopefully if more people test with more results etc they may be able to find one in the future. Valentino is only 5 months at the moment but I want to get him tested to help me make the decision about using him to breed with my queen or getting him neutered (breeder happy to put him on active if I pay difference between pet price & active price) He's booked in with my new vet who's a heart specialist & he's going to do an echo-cardiogram on him on Friday. If I do decide to keep him as my stud I would have him tested at 1 year & then once a year after that by a cardiologist. I have changed to this new vet after I went to him for a second opinion on a heart murmur that my original queen had. I emailed you for advice about my new queen being her littermate after I read the information on the health page of your website.Thank you for your advice on both occasions.Alison

I thought it might be you Alison . Unfortunately I think it will be a while yet before we have a gene test for Bengals and even then there are most likely a number of genes that can lead to HCM so screening will still need to be done. 5 months is a bit young for a HCM scan as the screening is not thought to be reliable until around 1 year old but it can't hurt to get him scanned anyway, the echo-cardiograms are hugely useful for checking up on the heart and monitoring for any possible issues not just HCM, it's just a shame they are so expensive as it puts a lot of people off .

I'm glad to hear that Valentino is PK-Def negative though, carriers can be bred from but it does make things awkward so it's good that that's one thing you don't have to worry about.

Hi Jenda. I've had a change of plan regarding using my little man as my stud. I haven't got anywhere with researching his pedigree, so I can't be certain that he is bringing the right genes into the mix. There's something that just doesn't sound right somehow but that could just be me having a suspicious mind. I'll be able to research it further when he's been neutered & I get his pedigree papers.I'm glad I've had him tested though so I know he's a healthy little chap

Hi Jenda. I've had a change of plan regarding using my little man as my stud. I haven't got anywhere with researching his pedigree, so I can't be certain that he is bringing the right genes into the mix. There's something that just doesn't sound right somehow but that could just be me having a suspicious mind. I'll be able to research it further when he's been neutered & I get his pedigree papers.I'm glad I've had him tested though so I know he's a healthy little chap

Witholding the GCCF/TICA slip until they are neutered is very normal, HOWEVER you should have been given a pedigree. In not doing so they are breaking the rules set out by the governing bodies. You should have got a 4/5 generation pedigree when you brought him home.

Hi Lollo thanks for your replies. They told me that I'd get the pedigree when I got him neutered & that's what it says in the paperwork I got. I wasn't aware I should have got it then. I just thought it was witheld to stop unscrupulus people not getting the cat neutered & breeding, then having the pedigree information to pass on to unsuspecting buyers. Anyway he's going to be a pampered little boy which was my plan when I chose him.I've done a lot more research & reading (especially on this forum) since then so won't (hopefully) be such a dufus again

Does anyone know what to test for in symptomatic cats? I mean when you're trying to figure out the cause for a cat's symptoms?

My mom's bengal died today from something that might have been PKDef, or not. His parents are both carriers and he has a positive sister, so it's very much possible he was PKDef positive. But since most cats don't actually get sick and there's other diseases as well, it would be necessary to know what to test for in these situations.

My mom's bengal, Uula, had some scary kidney levels, his crea being 1316 (57-116) and urea 50,9 (2,4-8,8). This is not something you'd see in regular kidney deficiency, especially when Uula's crea was 228 just 1,5 months ago (he was going to go for a re-test in a couple of weeks to see if the levels had lowered by themselves. Nothing drastic should happen so quickly in kidney deficiency, so this was an acute kidney failure). He was also anemic and had high potassium, to mention some anomalies. But the crash might have been due to other causes like a kidney tumor, so we don't really know if PKDef was the initial cause or not. For Uula there was nothing that could have been done, but it would be nice to know if there is in fact some tests that could be taken to diagnose a symptomatic PKDef.

When you say this is "FIP-like", can you elaborate? What symptoms of it are like those of FIP? I have a DLH cat who has shivers/muscular contractions when she lays down. It only happens at that point: laying/resting and before actually falling into a deep sleep. It was thought she might have FIP when she was checked out as a kitten, but the test came back negative (though I have heard the tests are useless anyway and often have false positives).

Anyway, she is now 1 1/2 yrs old, and other symptoms are starting to appear. I'm getting ready to take her to the vet yet again but am tired of getting nowhere with vets. I've found a number of people online whose cats have the same issue and get no answers from the vet. My cats brother also has the same issue. So far I'm noticing that all the cats have long hair. I have her videos on youtube if you care to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8UFsNmLayc

I'd appreciate someone on here indicating if this could be what you're seeing in your Bengals. Maybe it's way beyond the purebreds at this point! :( The vets are clueless and whatever this is, it seems to be a growing problem.

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